{shortcode-4b72f7954869cd0387ef35d6c8836fa08c6cc3ea}

Updated October 2, 2025, at 7:25 p.m.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences will admit new Ph.D. students “at significantly reduced levels” this year as Harvard shrinks its budgets in response to mounting federal funding pressures, according to a Tuesday email from FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra to faculty.

Hoekstra did not quantify the reduction in the number of graduate student admissions slots in her email, and a Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson declined to comment on which departments would see cuts.

Hoekstra’s email, which cited uncertainty around research funding and the increased endowment tax as sources of financial pressure, stated that the FAS decided to continue Ph.D. admissions “after careful deliberation” — suggesting that the FAS may have seriously considered pausing GSAS admissions entirely for the upcoming year. Hoekstra noted that other universities had halted admissions due to financial constraints.

“We have chosen a different course,” she wrote.

GSAS rejected all waitlisted graduate student candidates in the spring. Even before that, a number of graduate programs had reduced their planned admissions offers in response to federal funding cuts.

But the Population Health Sciences program — a Ph.D. program at the Harvard School of Public Health and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences — plans to admit at most 70 percent of the number mandated in previous years, according to HSPH professor Eric B. Rimm.

The program slashed its planned admit spots from 42 to 29, an approximate 30 percent decrease from the mandated number from years prior, according to Rimm. That reduced figure is now the ceiling for the number of students the program will admit this year, Rimm said.

And Hoekstra’s email suggests that similar changes could take place in other programs across the school. Cohort sizes will be reduced over the next two years as the FAS evaluates its future model for graduate education, Hoekstra wrote.

FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm declined to provide specific figures on graduate admission reductions.

Slashing graduate admissions is one of many cost-saving measures implemented by Harvard’s oldest school as it braces for sharp limits on future federal funding and new costs under a hiked endowment tax. The FAS has instituted a hiring freeze for full-time staff, announced it would keep its budget flat for fiscal year 2026, and ceased work on all “non-essential capital projects and spending.”

A federal judge ruled last month that the government’s freeze on Harvard’s funding was unconstitutional. Since then, the University has received at least $46 million from the National Institutes of Health, but the government’s timeline for returning remaining federal grant money is still unclear.

The Trump administration has also threatened Harvard’s international students by attempting to revoke its certification to enroll international students and impose an entry ban. A federal judge blocked the efforts with a preliminary injunction last spring.

The confluence of pressures on both Harvard’s funding and international students has discouraged some prospective applications from applying to the University’s Ph.D. programs, according to several faculty.

Organismic and Evolutionary Biology professor Peter R. Girguis said several prospective applicants told him that although they wanted to apply for his Ph.D. program, they were rethinking their decision out of concerns about funds and visas at Harvard.

“It may have a chilling effect on our graduate programs for years or even a decade,” Girguis said.

Prospective applicants have also cited concerns about antisemitism at Harvard, an issue that has become a flashpoint on campus and the Trump administration’s justification for its relentless assault against the University. Girguis said he saw the worries as a product of both real problems and the constant media spotlight trained on Harvard.

“I share their concerns, but I am worried about the exaggeration that we have seen in some media outlets,” he said.

Harvard Medical School professor Shiv S. Pillai, who co-directs the immunology graduate program, said that faculty mentors may become more reluctant to take on Ph.D. students if they don’t know whether they will be able to secure funding to support them.

“There’s a great deal of uncertainty,” he said. “And I would say it’s not at all unique to Harvard.”

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.